Poignant play marks players’ new season

King Langley Players in The Accrington Pals. Photo by Ron Balmforth

The Kings Langley Players open their new season with a heartrending production which its director first oversaw 30 years ago.

Peter Whelan’s The Accrington Pals was written for the Royal Shakespeare Company but it is now an established theatrical work.

Director Ron Balmforth – who first directed the show three decades ago – said: “With this year marking the centenary of the outbreak of The Great War, I felt it was the right time for us to revisit the play and offer it as our own commemoration.

“I was burning to do it as it had made such a deep impression on me – it is an unforgettably moving piece of writing.”

The Accrington Pals was a pals battalion of the British Army raised in and around the town of Accrington, made up entirely of friends, neighbours and work colleagues who enlisted together in local recruiting drives.

The play follows the emotional journey of the lads as they go over the top in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The show will run from October 23 to 25 at the Kings Langley Community Centre, with the curtain up at 7.45pm each night. Visit www.klp.org.uk or call 07906695959 for tickets.